Nor Cal Regionals 2016

On March 25th-27th, 2016, Nor Cal Regionals made its return to the Holiday Inn at Capitol Plaza in Sacramento, CA. It marked the second premier event in the Capcom Pro Tour for Street Fighter V which meant the winner would automatically qualify for Capcom Cup at the end of the year. Other games in the fighting game community were also represented too such as Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat X, and the return of Ultra Street Fighter IV. Community games were represented too such as Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Nitroplus Blasterz, and Super Smash Bros. 64.

What made this event stand out against many of the majors was the dreaded “pool of death” for Street Fighter V. What this death pool consisted of was 1 giant pool of all the people that did not preregister on time. Everyone in this pool registered late at the venue. Everyone was warned about this yet, everyone signed up anyway. The players in this pool could have easily filled out a regular top 8 at any other major. The players in this pool had such notable names like PG Filipino Champ, Mago, Poongko, EG KBrad, and more. Only two people would make it out alive.

The person that made it out in winners actually was a surprise. It was Marn that made it out with his gutsy, all offense, high risk, high reward play of his Rainbow Mika. Anything he did somehow worked. He beat a lot of top names to make it into top 8. His playstyle won the applause from the crowd thus enabling him to become an overnight hero. Marn may have come out as a hero, but it was Infiltration that came out as the victor but didn’t need the automatic qualifier as he had already qualified the week before in Atlanta at Final Round where he once again defeated Tokido in grand finals.

Despite both Wii U and Melee becoming more and more popular, the Smash community wasn’t as strong at this event as the gods for both games did not attend. This event was not for the Smash folks as it failed to attract the big names and gather the numbers as some of the bigger majors and events.

Overall, it was my favorite NCR yet as I had a blast. This event reminds me why I love the FGC. Would it have been cooler if some of the titles I enjoy playing were there? Yes, but that’s for the community to decide what games should be in or not. I had the time of my life and definitely would love to attend the 2017 edition.